3 must-have lures when ice-fishing for big lake trout—anywhere in Canada

There’s a reason New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge (inset above) bats first. His on-base plus slugging percentage is outrageous. In the 2022 season, he secured his place in baseball history by hitting 62 home runs and breaking Roger Maris’ 61-year-old, single-season home run record in the American League. And if you were the opposing team manager that season, and thought you could get away with intentionally walking Judge, you still had to deal with Anthony Rizzo, Oswaldo Cabrera and Giancarlo Stanton, the second, third and cleanup hitters, respectively.

I like to compare ice-fishing lures for lake trout to that classic Yankees lineup. For years, a four-inch white tube stuffed with a quarter- to 3/8-ounce jig has been the lead-off batter for most anglers. But what’s on deck if the tube strikes out? For me, it’s a spoon, swimbait and lipless crankbait.

#1  SPOONS

Spoons are the ultimate flash baits because they reflect even the smallest amount of sunlight, imitating the scales of the ciscoes, smelt and shiners that lake trout devour. They excel on massive waterbodies where you can often entice trout from a distance, with a modest two- to four-inch spoon usually attracting more lakers than a larger one. I suspect it’s a match-the-hatch proposition.

I prefer heavier spoons, but whatever weight you use, remember that these lures elicit unpredictable responses. When you spot a lake trout on your sonar screen streaking after your spoon, it’s sometimes more effective to reel it away quickly, as though the lure were a fleeing baitfish. Other times, letting the spoon fall and flutter works best, while still other times, pausing and keeping it motionless is the key.

My single most memorable day on the ice, for example, occurred many years ago on Lake Superior. I was snapping up a half gold/half silver Williams Ice Jig (above), then pausing before letting it flutter back down and pausing again. I couldn’t interest the trout into hitting it, however, until I let it hand dead still in the middle of the water column instead. I can’t tell you how many trout I’ve since caught doing just that.